Maximum PC Ultimate Performance Guide, The

This glossy book has some of the ambience of a computer magazine and a Sharper Image catalog. Very visually appealing. There has been careful attention to make what might often be bland subjects like optimising your file view or removing unnecessary DLLs into something that grabs your attention.

While I compared it to a magazine or catalog, I should add that there is a lot of solid material here, that is technically accurate. Plus the choice of topics is clearly contemporary. You are shown how to overclock, which helps gamers, amongst others. Or, you can see how to use your PC for digital photography or digital video. These are now burgeoning fields, as photography and film both make the transition to digital formats. The authors are hitting all the prominent market segments for a consumer PC.

Though, after reading the book, you might yearn for the quiet of a plain black and white printed page.

In 10 words or less, this book is: Full of great information, laced with advertisements, and becoming outdated.
I bought this back in 05, and I carry it with me to any friends house when they request I lend a hand to any problem. It covers all the hardware in modern computing, from the hard-drive, soundcards, monitor, and speakers.
It talks about various minor to major XP hacks, awesome downloadable tools and utilities, understanding XP, improving boot-time, overclocking, and more.
On the downside, every 20 or more pages, there's an ad touting it's magazine, and much of the online content it talks about has now become trial/buy versions, and like anything in the computer industry, it doesn't help much with Vista. Like I said before, it's a bit outdated.
I would still recommend buying this if you're a noob to real hacking/mods.